CHAPTER FIVE: ASSEMBLY

"For Darkseid!"

Monstrous screeches echoed through the night as more and more of the aliens flew through the sky, landing in front of the four heroes. All of them got into a battle stance, ready to fight back. Alex had almost launched a cosmic blast at one of the creatures when she heard another battle cry, this time more resoundingly human.

She, Hal, Barry and Batman, all of them turned their head around at the same time only to see a woman, dressed in warrior garb, holding a lasso and a sword fly past them, landing right in the middle of the horde.

"Wonder Woman," Alex muttered in awe, staring slightly open-mouthed, watching as Diana motherfucking Prince took out an entire horde of alien creatures with such ease, that she almost felt jealous. But at the same time, Alex knew she was in the presence of a literal goddess.

Besides her, she heard Barry let out a surprised noise. "Holy..."

With one swing of her fist, Diana sent two of the monsters flying, both of whom crash landed into the others behind them, creating a fiery explosion. She threw her lasso around one of the monsters and swung it with force, throwing it into a building where it exploded into fire. The rest of the monsters she took out with ease, slashing and cutting them all with her swords.

Alex was definitely finding this a little hot. After all, Diana was her famous celebrity crush-esque superhero. She was so going to cry, seeing her fight in front of her. She was being such a fangirl.

One final slash and the last of the creatures (for now), was gone. Diana wiped the turquoise-like liquid that was the creatures' blood off her arms and swords and turned towards them, raising her sword for them.

"Greetings, warriors!" Diana greeted, sounding a little theatrical.

"Dibs," Hal looked towards Barry with a smirk before floating towards Wonder Woman, not realising the stiff look that had suddenly appeared on Alex's face.

"Hi," He started to say, but was interrupted as Superman flew down, landing right in between him and Diana. Alex walked forward with a smirk on her face, holding out her hand.

Diana shook it, her grip soft, but strong just like a seasoned fighter. "Ah, it's good to be back in the heat of war."

Alex merely nodded, pulling her hand away reluctantly. She'd wanted to shake hands with Wonder Woman all night long, but that wouldn't be possible. Not with what was happening around them. Before she could even begin to think of what she would say to Diana, more screeches reverberated through the air as the monsters began to fly away.

'Strange. Why would they retreat now?' Alex mentally said to herself, ignoring Hal's annoying remark. 'Did we actually manage to scare them off?'

"No, they're assembling," Batman suddenly spoke up. "Waiting for whoever's behind this to launch the attack."

"Alright, now what?" Superman met his eyes with a questioning look.

"I don't know," Batman replied.

'Oh, so we are definitely screwed if even Batman doesn't know anything,' Alex's mental thought train was pretty much going to be derailed by the end of the night. If it ever came. Which it should, judging by things were progressing. She had a feeling the actual battle was just about to begin and that everything that had been happening before it was just a mere show of strength, the might of a horde of other-worldly monsters versus a group of people who knew nothing about each other, except for their powers.

A whirring noise erupted through the air and everybody turned their attention in the direction it had come from. A blue plume of smoke, almost similar to the aliens was, crashed into a building, letting out black smog. Alex floated a couple of steps backwards, instantly on high alert regarding whatever this new threat was. Her fists were already lit up with energy.

"Incoming!" Hal yelled as he raised his ring in the direction of the new creature. But this one looked slightly different than the other ones with a black, grey and pastel-like green shell.

"Mine!" Wonder Woman growled ferociously, running towards the new arrival. Even as she was preparing to slash the newest creature, it blasted her with a blue laser cannon sending her flying into a car. Alex, also in the pathway of the cannon, barely ducked in time, grabbing onto Hal as she lost her balance. He immediately steadied her with his hand, putting an arm around her waist as he pulled her away from the beam. Alex muttered a quick thanks before things could get too awkward between them and only watched with the slightest amount of horror as Superman turned on his laser eyes to shoot at this creature.

"No, I'm not with them!" A human voice erupted from the creature's mouth and when Alex looked closely, it seemed like a guy was stuck in the metallic shell of the monster. Barry sped over in front of Superman, raising his hands to stop the Kryptonian from attacking.

"Hold on! I can vouch for that," He said. "He was at S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Since when has S.T.A.R. Labs started creating alien-human hybrid soldiers?" Alex muttered under her breath. "That is so ethically fucked up, man."

Just when she thought things couldn't get any weirder, they did. A man flew down from the sky, dressed in a white cape and a bright red and yellow suit. Electricity seemed to crackle all around him, surrounding his body and give him an almost god-like aura.

"Hey there. What's up? Shazam," He introduced himself before jabbing his thumb in the direction of the human-metal hybrid man. "I'm with him."

"He's not with me," The human-metal hybrid man said strongly (Alex really needed to get his name; she couldn't keep on referring to him like that)

"And who the hell are you supposed to be?" Hal voiced out, partially surprised, partially annoyed. "Mr. Roboto?"

The Cyborg looking dude turned and walked forward so that all of the heroes could hear his words clearly. "Who I am doesn't matter. What I know does."

"Which is?" Batman asked bluntly.

"I've talked to their technology," The Cyborg man (Robot man? Cyborg?) said. "I know their plan. They're terraforming the Earth. It's about to get ugly."

"That fits," Batman replied, turning away slightly.

Alex looked at him curiously. "How do you figure?"

"Well for one thing, the water's on fire."

Alex and the others immediately turned their attention to the ocean where a massive patch of water was alit with flames. Her jaw almost dropped open. "What in the fresh hell is that?"

Hundreds of the alien creatures seemed to be hovering over that area. And just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, they did. Water spun and rose from the ocean like a colossal tornado and a strange, monstrous and very ugly looking structure emerged out of it, as though it was an ominous red and black beacon in the sky. And it was probably just that.

The ground beneath their feet rumbled and shook as one more of this structure erupted from the ground behind them, glowing a menacing scarlet. As Alex looked around the city, it seemed more and more of these structures were popping everywhere. The top of the structures glowed a bright white before bursting into a beam that shot straight up into the night sky. The aliens, who had captured some humans, were now flying towards these structures likes bees returning to their hive.

Only if the bees were murderous aliens who were invading the earth and they liked kidnapping people.

"What are they doing with them?" Superman said, observing the monsters who were flying away towards the structures.

"Can't be sure, but I know this," Batman stepped forward. "They're not killing anyone. They're harvesting them."

Alex suddenly felt a little nauseous (only a little though!). Harvesting them for what? Their organs, their blood...this whole invasion was going well beyond anything she had ever faced in her life. Well beyond it. Her life was getting crazier and crazier by the minute. (then again, maybe she should have expected this when she became Supernova.)

"This isn't an isolated incident either," Barry added. "It's happening across the world."

Suddenly, the structure in the ocean opened up at the top, letting out a scattering beam of white light. It almost looked like a portal, a giant one; creatures flew out of it in hordes as the beam glowed brightly.

"We're too late," Cyborg announced, his robotic voice almost fearful. "He's here."

"Who is?" Alex asked out loud. A moment later, she got her answer. The portal-beam glowed even brighter and another creature emerged out of it, but this time it (or he, as Cyborg had said) was more dangerous. He was tall, extremely tall, dressed in blue armor that was outlined in gold. His skin was a sickly purple. His eyes were completely red and even from the distance, Alex could see that he had no irises.

So fucking creepy.

"I'm guessing that's the bad guy?" Hal asked casually, looking at the alien leader who was now floating through the air and coming towards them.

"Lucky guess," Batman replied.

"Hmm, he doesn't look that tough," Superman muttered.

Fighter jets flew through the air, attacking the aliens in with their missiles. Alex secretly crossed her fingers, hoping their efforts would work. The moment the missiles struck the alien, everything around him erupted into a fiery explosion, surrounding him in a cloud of smoke. But when the cloud of smoke faded, the alien did not look like he had been injured at all. His eyes glowed a menacing scarlet orange before lasers shot out. They bent and crisscrossed through the sky, taking down all three of the jets with it.

"No," Alex mumbled, covering her mouth in horror. 'Those pilots...oh god, no.'

Up close, the alien was, even more, taller than Alex's earlier guess, the features on his face appearing more ugly as he got closer. He was surrounded by a horde of those winged creatures.

"I am entropy," His voice was grainy, cold and rough like he didn't breathe normal air, but rather some sort of poison.

"I am death. I am Darkseid."

The League's all assembled now!!! I'm so glad that I finally wrote this moment! Alex fangirling and crushing over Wonder Woman is literally me. This chapter was actually pretty fun to write, especially with those little moments between Hal and Alex, those felt really cute to write. And next chapter, you'll be getting more of these; I can promise you that.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Let me know what you thought in the comments below!